As safe as houses
Professor A. W. Hendry, Department of Civil Engineering and Build- ing Science, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, discusses recent developments in research on brickwork construction.
THE 1960's saw a world-wide develop- ment of interest in the use of brick- work for multi-storey residential build- ings.
Brickwork has, of course, been used in this way for centuries, but the significance of the past decade has been the serious application of en- gineering principles and methods to the structural design of brickwork buildings and a renewed appreciation of the potential of the material in terms of appearance, durability and
cost.
There is certainly evidence of wide interest in brickwork construction in most countries, to judge from the number of visitors to the Structural Ceramics Research Unit at Edinburgh University, Scotland, and from the number of participants in the recent International Brick Masonry Confer- ence at Stoke-on-Trent, England. This attracted more than 200 delegates from over a score of countries.
The papers presented to the con- ference included contributions from both advanced industrial countries and developing countries, demonstrating the relevance of brick masonry con- struction in all kinds of economies. The proceedings showed how this form of construction could be success- fully adapted to many physical en- vironments and uses.
It was also clear that Britain is playing a leading role in the modern development of brick construction, for parallel with the practical interest there has developed an active research effort related to the structural and other properties of brickwork, sup ported by the brick industry through its research and development associa- tions.
Load carrying capacity tests
Earlier work on the load carrying capacity of brickwork, carried out at the Building Research Station, Wat- ford, near London, was concerned with the compressive and shear strength of isolated wall panels. The current British Standard Code of Prac-
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Five-storey experimental building being erected for lateral loading tests
tice used for the design of brickwork structures in Britain is based on these tests but the construction of high rise buildings of up to 16 or 17 storeys has gone well beyond its originally intend- ed scope and has revealed the need for further research.
One of the most important prob- lems which has required investigation has been the behaviour of complete network structures under wind load- ing. In view of the considerable ex- pense in testing full scale structures, this problem was first explored on a model scale in the Civil Engineering Laboratories of Edinburgh University.
To this end, structures of up to five storeys were built in 1/6th scale brick- work, following a series of tests to validate the model technique.
In a typical test the model is load- ed by means of hydraulic jacks simu- lating wind loads and information is obtained on the ultimate strength of brickwork in shear and also on the stress distribution within the structure and its rigidity at working loads.
Much information has been obtain- ed from model experiments but it is essential to check the results by a limited number of tests carried out on full-scale structures. As it is not feasi-
Far East BUILDER, January 1971